Once you only had tea at the local Chinese restaurant or in
bed, sick with a cold or flu. And then, it was never anything but Lipton.
But times, happily, have changed. Today a great range of teas is available
at specialty shops and fine restaurants. Even “Afternoon Teas” are
catching on. For an authentic Afternoon Tea though, one still must “cross
the pond” to where the event was launched by the Duchess of Bedford back
in 1840. It’s been an integral part of British tradition ever since, and
many are the establishments that offer this genteel experience. But few,
if any, can rival the style, variety, and aplomb of “Afternoon Tea” at London’s Dorchester
Hotel.

Dusk was gently falling on Hyde Park when we arrived
at the Dorchester late on an October afternoon bathing the lobby in a
golden glow. Before us was the Promenade, a splendid Edwardian hall that
ran the depth of the hotel, lined with sand-colored pillars crowned with
gilded Corinthian capitals and huge urns filled with potted palms and
great bouquets of lilies. At its head, a gentleman in tails was playing
American standards on a grand piano.

From our sofa-for-two recessed in an alcove, we looked down
the Promenade at an array of tables covered in crisp white linens
surrounded by plump little divans and plushy arm chairs. The crowd was
well-dressed, intergenerational, and clearly in a celebratory mood with
the merriment extending to a neighboring table of Moslem women, their
heads seriously swathed with black scarves, who nevertheless joined in a
rollicking “Happy Birthday to You” when a candle-lit cake was served
nearby.

Marc Correal, the Promenade’s youthful manager, noticed one of
us checking out the brand of an eggshell-thin bone china teacup with a
delicate floral pattern. “It’s Wedgwood,” he said. Marc comes from
Stoke-on-Kent and knows his porcelain. He also knows his teas and so we took
his suggestion and chose the house blend from Sri Lanka from the 20
kinds of tea the Dorchester offers. “Made from the leaves, the traditional
way,” Marc said, as the steaming, flavorful brew was poured through a
little strainer into our cups.

Marc Correal knows his porcelain and his teas

One can add a glass of champagne to the standard Afternoon Tea
or go even further and indulge in High Tea which we’d thought meant a more
elaborate ritual. Not so. “High Tea is actually a meal, a light supper. It
goes back to Victorian times,” Marc said. “The Dorchester is one of the
few places that still offer High Tea. But it is quite popular especially
as a pre-theater meal when people don’t want to have a big dinner.” Our
situation exactly, we thought.

“The salmon is running in Scotland now; it is excellent,” Marc
told us, as we sipped a glass of slightly salty champagne of the most
gorgeous shade of rose and contemplated the first course from a tiered
tray. These were finger sandwiches, little crustless rectangles of white
and brown bread filled with the salmon (which was excellent) and also
tuna from Scotland, egg and chicken salad, and the ubiquitous cucumber
sandwiches that always brings Oscar Wilde to mind. Next came the scones,
made from the Dorchester’s own fifty-year old recipe, served with rich
Devonshire clotted cream and plum jam.

Were we having the standard Afternoon
Tea, our repast would conclude here with an assortment of pastries.
But the High Tea offers a choice of hot dishes of the sort you might
find at a Sunday brunch: Eggs Benedict, Welsh rarebit, chicken,
scrambled eggs and smoked salmon, stilton and leek tart. We went for
the Eggs Benedict and then succumbed to an selection of delectable
pastries: flaky almond tarts, berry crumble, lemon cheesecake,
strawberry yogurt mousse, and most irresistible of all pastry made of
strudel dough filled with strawberry cream.

Then it was off to the
theater – a disappointing production, sad to say. But High Tea at the
Dorchester had been theater enough, a beautifully choreographed event in a
stunning setting. And we’d learned something as well. Now when the subject
of High Tea comes up, as invariably it does, and the misconceptions fly,
we’re able to set the record straight.

MOST NOTABLE - - A dream of an Afternoon Tea can also be had at the Ritz, London’s eternal emblem
of elegance. But we had arrived for lunch at what many consider the most
beautiful restaurant space in Europe to see how Executive Chef Domin
Blais, new on the job at our last visit, was coming along. In the space
of four months, he’s added definition and distinction to the Ritz
Restaurant with an elaborate French-influenced menu enlivened by
seasonal specialties. We feasted on oak-smoked salmon, autumnal
vegetables with black truffles, lobster bisque with Armagnac, and a
divine papillotte of fettuccine with lobster, scallops and prawns. No
need to wonder why the dinner celebrating the Fiftieth Anniversary of
Queen Elizabeth’s coronation was held at the Ritz.

The Ritz London
150 Piccadilly
London W1J 9BR
Phone: (020) 7493 8181

Photographs byHarvey Frommer

# # #

About the Authors: Myrna Katz Frommer and Harvey Frommer are a wife and husband
team who successfully bridge the worlds of popular culture and traditional
scholarship. Co-authors of the critically acclaimed interactive oral histories
It Happened in the Catskills, It Happened in Brooklyn, Growing Up Jewish in
America, It Happened on Broadway, It Happened in Manhattan, It Happened in
Miami. They teach what they practice as professors at Dartmouth College.

They are also travel writers who specialize in luxury properties and fine dining
as well as cultural history and Jewish history and heritage in the United
States, Europe, and the Caribbean. More
about these authors.